Fort Worth, Texas
From nycsubway.org
Overview
Downtown Fort Worth was the home to a privately owned, 0.7 mile subway line, operating from the Tandy Center to parking lots along the bank of the Trinity River.
The subway was originally built by Leonard's department store in 1963, connecting the store to its parking lots. The line consisted of one underground station and four stations in the parking lots. The fleet consisted of 15 PCC streetcars purchased second-hand from D.C. Transit in Washington, D.C. Painted in blue, red, and pink, the streetcars had signage naming the operation the "Leonard's M&O Subway".
The Leonard's department store itself was demolished and replaced with the Tandy Center (two 20-story office towers which held the headquarters of Tandy Radio Shack Corporation, and an indoor shopping mall) in 1974. At the same time, the Dillard's chain bought out Leonard's and became the primary tenant of the new mall. The PCC streetcar operation was renamed the "Dillard's Metroliner". Around 1976, the PCC cars were "modernized" and relabeled "TC - Tandy Center". Some ex-Boston MBTA PCCs (among them 3158, 3164, 3168, 3177, 3178, 3196) found their way to the Tandy Subway property in the late 1970s or very early 1980s (see photos below).
The new mall was not very successful and Dillard's moved out in 1995; the subway was finally closed in 2002. After closing, the track and carhouse were removed; the only traces that remain are two of the station structures and the track in front of them in the Panther Island Pavilion parking lot (Google streetview).
According to the Preserved North American Electric Railway Cars database, several of the cars were preserved in some fashion:
- PCC #1 (ex DCT 1560) was restored and is on display in the lobby of One City Place in Fort Worth.
- PCC #10 (later renumbered #1) (ex MBTA 3166), and PCC #4 (ex DCT 1506) to the North Texas Historic Transportation private collection
- PCC #2 (ex DCT) to the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority in Dallas
- PCC #3 (ex DCT 1551) and PCC #6 (ex DCT) to Brookville Equipment Corp. in Pennsylvania (for parts or eventual restoration and sale to some future vintage streetcar customer)
- Ex DCT 1540 (Tandy number unknown) to the National Capitol Trolley Museum
Photo Gallery
| Five Random Images | ||||
 Image 13878 (86k, 600x400) Photo by: Don Ross |  Image 18053 (694k, 1200x800) Photo by: Phil Hom |  Image 18064 (459k, 1200x800) Photo by: Phil Hom |  Image 18087 (590k, 1200x800) Photo by: Phil Hom |  Image 158222 (497k, 1200x1200) Collection of: David Pirmann |